Saturday, March 24, 2012

Crew v Montreal, Important 3 Pts

The Crew host Montreal twice this year. In order for the Crew to make the playoffs they need to pull all 6 home points from the expansion Impact.

After spending some time looking at this match up I realize that Columbus will have to fight more than most think to get these 3 points.

Montreal has played in two high profile games already. Away in Vancouver (Loss) and Home (Draw) in front of 60k fans. In other words, their season started three weeks ago and are MLS game tested. Impact also have regular 2011 Crew starter Josh Gardner on the team. Gardner, I'm sure, has helped them go into tonight with confidence.

In reality, even though they have played a league game, the Crew are still in preseason mode. Two new signings three weeks into the season is not what anyone likes to see, but not unusual. However, two new signings that might play this week plants red flags around the front office.

There is more risk then reward for Columbus tonight. Unless it is decisive, get a win and fans and folks like me will clap politely and say 'we should beat an expansion side.' A loss and fans will press the panic button. A shutout loss and Warzycha will be in a heap of trouble.

In putting together my Game Program just about everything came down to this: We have an expansion team taking on a club that has very little year over year consistency.